Mars may be more hospitable to life - including human explorers of the future - than had been feared, according to new research using information sent back both from NASA's robot rover Curiosity and from orbiters circling the red planet. As we've previously reported, Curiosity's radiation instruments indicate that normal background radiation at the Martian surface is comparatively mild - a pleasant surprise considering the planet's thin atmosphere. Apart from atmosphere and possible planetary magnetic fields (like those which make Earth so hospitable), there's another major way in which a planet can protect those on its surface from the dangerous levels of radiation which permeate space at all times and occasionally - for instance during major solar storms - surge to fatal levels. A planet naturally blocks out half the sky and its background cosmic rays for anyone standing on its surface. Around half the time this will include the Sun, which is the source of most of the dangerous radiation in the solar system. Read more http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/19/mars_astronauts_radiation_life_possible/
